UPDATE: Theorizing Fan Fiction (5/15/05; collection)

Fan fiction has recently gained increasing visibility in both mass media andacademic writing. Although numerous insightful essays have appeared invarious venues, no comprehensive essay collection has traced the changes andshifts in fan culture and fan fiction since the groundbreaking works ofHenry Jenkins, Camille Bacon-Smith, and Constance Penley of the early 1990s.This essay collection looks to complement these crucial early explorationsinto fan fiction by expanding their scope and focus to include such recentphenomena as the Internet (with fan culture revolving around Usenet groups,mailing lists, and blogs); the rapid growth of stories featuring previouslytaboo subjects such as underage sex, incest, and real person fiction (RPF);and the changing demographics of the fan base. Recent work has also queriedthe frequently debated and constantly shifting attitudes toward writing andcommunity, as well as more sophisticated self-analysis, in part the resultof the increasing presence of academic fans.

We are looking for academic essays geared toward a general readership andparticularly welcome personal reflections of readers, writers, and fans.This collection strives to be interdisciplinary, and we especially welcomehistorical, sociological, and anthropological approaches, as well as Englishand media studies. Essays may focus on particular fandoms and source textsbut should ultimately move beyond the specifics to address larger concernsand experiences relevant to fandom and fan fiction at large. Papers will fitinto one of four broad sections: history and terminology; text, writer,reader; forms and genres; and community.

1. History and terminology

Factual accounts of history and terminology should be tempered withanalysis, perhaps indicating shifts as time passes and as fan fiction movesfrom hard copy to cyberspace. Traditional zines, fan fiction CDs anddownloads, Usenet, mailing lists, and blogs could be analyzed, perhaps interms of fandom's response to technological change. Analysis of specificfandoms as well as more general overviews are welcome.

2. Text, writer, reader

The relationship among any of the three elements of the rhetorical situationneeds analysis. Academic/fan, reader/writer, process and writing, engagementwith source text (such as episode fixes or traumatic events in the canonsource), questions of canon, fanon and characterization, and issues ofauthor insertion and identification--these are just a few uneasyrelationships that need contextualization. Studies of the process ofwriting, as opposed to the product, as central are also needed.

New analyses of the fan fiction community generating and consuming the textsthat take into account new use of technology are needed. LiveJournal andother online communities, the interaction among writer/beta/audience, fanfiction as gift, strategies to meld the fan fiction community (cons, ficarchives), and inculcation of new fans into the fan fiction community allneed to be theorized in light of technological change and a concomitant lackof policing. Other possible topics include the identity politics of fandomand the emotional investment of fans into fandom, the texts, and each other.

Details

All fandoms are welcome, as are essays about mediafic, bookfic, comicfic,and RPF. The volume will be geared to academics and students interested injargon-free, theory-based analyses of media and audience, including, amongothers, students in English, media studies, and sociology. Personalscholarly essays as well as more traditional academic essays are encouraged.

Preparation

Submit complete essays not more than 7500 words in length (excludingabstract, notes, and works cited). Include an abstract not more than 500words long that summarizes the argument. Submit files via e-mail inMicrosoft Word or .rtf format. Use in-text author-page number citationswhenever possible. Use endnotes sparingly for substantive notes. Styleaccording to Chicago 15. If artwork, photographs, or screen shots areincluded, contact the editors for instructions and copyright releaserequirements. No simultaneous submissions. We also cannot accept previouslypublished essays. If you have put your essay up on the Internet, we cannotconsider it for inclusion.

Please inform us in advance of your interest in the project and get incontact with us about any questions you might have about possible submissiontopics. We also encourage early submission to facilitate revision.